Rovio Announces Second Season of 'Angry Birds Toons' Series

The Finnish company says its multiplatform cartoon channel, ToonsTV, has topped a billion views and will show Stan Lee series "Chakra the Invincible!" and new series "Bad Piggies" and "Stella."

Rovio Entertainment said on Wednesday that its multiplatform channel, ToonsTV, will next year bring back Angry Birds for a second season of animated video programming.

The channel has been viewed more than 1 billion times since it launched in March, the company said.

A new series of Angry Birds cartoons, Angry Birds Toons, will start airing in 2014 alongside what Rovio calls "a range of high-quality third-party content" that will include the worldwide launch of Stan Lee's Chakra the Invincible!

New series, currently in development, also include a dedicated series for Bad Piggies and a dedicated series for Stella, the pink bird.

Alongside Stan Lee's new series, produced by POW! Entertainment and Graphic India, Rovio will air shorts, specials and series from Hasbro Studios’ classic brands; National Geographic Kids’ Amazing Animals; classic show Fraggle Rock from The Jim Henson Company; and Oggy & the Cockroaches, Zig & Sharko, Space Goofs and more from Xilam Animation.

“We are extremely excited about the positive reception from our fans with the original Angry Birds Toons series, said Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio Entertainment, on Wednesday. "Given the size of our reach and our massively engaged audience, it seemed only natural to extend beyond our own storytelling and partner with the best content creators to bring our fans even more fun entertainment."

Lee said: "I can't wait to introduce the world to Chakra the Invincible, and I'm thrilled to do it on such a massive scale on ToonsTV, and with a partner like Rovio that really understands the fan community."

The cartoons are available in a dedicated ToonsTV channel across Angry Birds games, video-on-demand channel providers, smart TVs and connected devices. They can also be seen on more than 20 broadcast TV networks around the world.

Earlier this year, Rovio sealed a deal with Sony Pictures for worldwide distribution rights to a full-length animated feature film based on the Angry Birds video game. John Cohen, producer of Despicable Me, and David Maisel, who exec produced Iron Man, are on board to produce the movie with an anticipated release date of July 1, 2016.